Barack Obama’s political appointees are inept, incapable, and needlessly politicize the basic functions of whole segments of the federal government. That is not the assessment of firebrand conservatives but the result of a recent survey of high-placed career federal employees.

The survey, conducted by the Government Business Council, polled 148 Senior Executive Service members. These federal managers ranked Obama’s political appointees at only 2.0, down from the 2.3 rating enjoyed by the Clinton and Bush administrations. At least 10 percent more managers gave Obama’s appointees a D or F than failed Bush or Clinton’s teams. National Journal reports 20 percent gave such low marks to Clinton/Bush, as opposed to “more than 30 percent” for Obama.

More damning than the dry statistical data are the descriptions of federal employees of Obama’s team. According to one manager the political appointees are far more involved in day-to-day affairs, but “the effectiveness, skill and knowledge has dramatically decreased” since January 2009. Some said Obama’s appointees attempt to “break organizations.” One said the administration’s overseers “have a divide-and-conquer strategy, and there are way too many industry fingers allowed in decision-making.” Another said this led to “politicization of normal agency functions.”

Rep. Pete Hoekstra tells Newsmax that the Obama administration is withholding critical information about terrorists that could be useful in preventing future attacks.

The Michigan legislator — the top Republican on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — also says that if a successful attack does occur, responsibility will be on “the heads of the administration.”

And he insists there should be “consequences” for North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean naval vessel.

Rep. Hoekstra was first elected in 1992. He is not running for re-election in November and instead seeks the GOP nomination for governor in Michigan. In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Hoekstra says: “All of us are very frustrated, Democrats and Republicans, with the lack of information sharing coming from this White House.